Hey everyone, I'm in the middle of refinishing some older pine stairs and I've hit a couple snags. I'm dealing with tacky polyurethane and I'm wondering how long I should wait before I consider giving up and starting over. Additionally, what's the recommended wait time between stripping, staining, and applying polyurethane? I've been following the material instructions, but it hasn't been going as planned. Just to give you some background, I stripped the stairs twice to get the old finish off, applied a pre-conditioner followed by an oil stain, and then waited 72 hours before applying a water-based polyurethane. It's now been several days, and parts are still tacky while others are starting to harden. Any advice?
2 Answers
I’ve found that the key to getting polyurethane to dry properly is applying very thin coats. If you put it on too thick, it can stay tacky for quite a while—sometimes even a week or more! Make sure you're only putting a little on the brush and spreading it out as much as you can when you apply it. That should help things dry better next time!
When I refinished my oak floors, the fast-dry water-based poly I used dried to the touch in just a couple of hours without any issues. From my past experiences, I once had trouble with dryness—even with a quality product like Minwax—because the old stripper wasn’t fully cleaned off. Make sure you're neutralizing it well after stripping!
I appreciate the insight! I didn’t use the combo products, but I wonder if I missed a step in cleaning off the old stripper.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely be more careful with the thickness of my coats moving forward.